The Weakley Film News 9-1-2017

Holy crap, it’s September! Labor Day weekend! The end of the summer movie season! Let’s see what shenanigans are going on this week!

In this week’s “But what does it really mean?” story, Joss Whedon is getting a writer’s credit on the Justice League movie.

I suppose that’s the least they could do seeing as he took over directing and post production from Zack Snyder. And it’s a whopping $ 25 million worth of reshoots, and a number of weeks. The writer/director was said to be working on the “connective tissue” of the movie, namely, the scenes between the big action set pieces. And with characters and tone being tweaked, and a whole new ending being pulled together, it only makes sense that, in addition to earning a huge paycheck, Whedon sees his name up in lights.

Anthony Boyle, known for playing Scorpius Malfoy in the British play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, also has signed on for the film centered on the famed author.

In Tolkien, Hoult will play the author of the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings book series that were later adapted into two Hollywood trilogies from Peter Jackson. Dome Karukoski is directing the project.

Tolkien, written by David Gleeson and Stephen Beresford, explores the early life of the novelist as he finds love, friendship and artistic inspiration among a group of fellow outcasts. When the horrors of World War I envelope Tolkien’s life, they threaten to tear this “fellowship” apart, and he questions the very meaning and purpose of his art. Instead, he finds a way to use these experiences as inspiration for his famous works, among them The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Collins will play Edith Bratt, Tolkien’s great love and eventual wife who inspired the elven princess characters in the Lord of the Rings saga.

In this week’s “In Memorium” story, actor Richard Anderson, who most of us know from the Six Million Dollar Man and Bionic Woman shows as Oscar Goldman, passed away at the age of 91.

Anderson played the character Oscar Goldman in both shows which ran concurrently for two years in 1974, after played the same role in a number of TV movies of the same characters in 1973.

He also had a key role in the 1956 sci-fi classic Forbidden Planet, in which he played chief engineer Quinn.

“That was the last of two dozen movies I did for MGM,”Anderson told Gannett’s the Spectrum in 2015. “Sci-fi feature films were rather new in 1956, and it changed the genre forever. The whole movie was shot on one stage and, as filming progressed, the studio gave us more money and the best production staff. We turned out a first-class movie that’s still impressive today.”

The actor also had substantial supporting roles in Stanley Kubrick’s 1957 anti-war masterpiece Paths of Glory, in which he played Maj. Saint-Auban — a member of the military court that convicts the hopelessly innocent men — and 1958’s The Long Hot Summer, starring Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, in which he played Alan Stewart, whom Woodward’s character has her eyes on.

There are many more – in fact Anderson was rather busy working actor in film and TV. he’s one of those actors that maybe you know his face instantly, but maybe not his name. He was a staple of my childhood as he appeared on so many shows I watched, Six Million Dollar Man and Bionic Woman being just two of them.

In this week’s “Many cooks in Maverick’s kitchen”, story, Top Gun 2: Maverick, uh, the Top Gun sequel, appears to be finally under way, however, the script is undergoing a rewrite.

However, what’s most interesting (another word for “Uh oh”) about that is that the person doing the rewrite is a screenwriter that previously wasn’t part of the project. American Hustle writer Eric Warren Singer is now the one handling the script.

The primary name attached to the script of Top Gun: Maverick, up to this point has been Justin Marks, the man responsible for Disney’s live-action Jungle Book movie. Before that, The Town writer Peter Craig had been attached. However, according to German film site Filmstarts, Eric Warren Singer is now the man doing the writing. It’s not clear whether Singer is starting from scratch or just doing a rewrite of whatever Marks and/or Craig had done previously.

Although the plot is unknown, rumours have it that it will involve Maverick flying against drone fighters. I don’t really care all that much.

In this week’s “Interesting addition” story, Ron Howard just announced that actor Paul Bettany has joined the cast of the Star Wars spin-off movie. Yes, the Han Solo movie.

In his tweet, Howard said, “The Outer Rim just got a little bit wilder,” sharing an image of the director and Bettany on set. He later followed up with a second tweet: “It’s my third opportunity to work with Paul. He’s a blast & so talented.”

He has replaced actor Michael K. Williams after ha head to leave production due to scheduling on another project.

We still don’t know who he’s playing in the film, though.

In this week’s “What’s with all this Joker shenanigans?” story, it seems Warner Bros. wants Leonardo DiCaprio to play the Joker in their stand alone origin film. I don’t feel right about this potential casting at all. However, the studio’s film, to be directed by Todd Phillips, is expected to have Martin Scorsese on board as an executive producer.

That makes sense, seeing as Leo and Scorcese have worked together so much in the past.

But still – DiCaprio as The Joker? Not feeling it. You know who else isn’t feeling it? Jared Leto. The Hollywood Reporter says Leto was caught off guard by the news of another actor playing The Joker, and has made his displeasure known with his agents. LOL.

In this week’s “Apparently it CAN rain all the time” story, the long-gestating remake of The Crow, starring the late Brandon Lee, spent the past ten years over a Relativity with various directors and wroters coming and going.

When Relativity went belly up, The Crow Reborn, as its’ now called, had no home.

Until now. It has finally landed at Sony Pictures to distribute.

Jason Momoa and Corin Hardy were last on board as star and director, and while they are not formally signed on to the Sony version, insiders say the plan does includes them coming on in the near term.

Sources say the reboot will be a more faithful adaptation of the indie comic created by James O’Barr that was first published in 1989.

Time will tell if things continue forward as is or if various changes take place in regards to whose attached, etc.

In this week’s “Will Superman wear his black tie best?” story, there are some rumours going around that when Superman returns in the Justice League movie, he’ll be back wearing the black suit from when he came back after The Death of Superman comic storyline.

One of the reasons for the possibility is that the toys for Justice League show an action figure of Superman in the black suit. Your feelings about assumptions and speculation aside, this is a pretty good indicator that it might be accurate. However, you never really know for sure.

In this week’s “As I suspected…” story, director Andy Muschietti responded to a question from Bad Taste, the Italian film website.

When asked specifically whether he would be focusing on Robotech with IT wrapped up, Muschietti responded with, “No, IT 2 è la mia priorità. Dirigerò Robotech, in caso, dopo,” which, for those not fluent in Italian, translates to, “No, IT 2 is my priority. I would direct Robotech after in that case.” Muschietti was then asked if he would have a bigger budget for the possible sequel, to which he responded, “I hope so!”

In this week’s “Speaking of clowns…” story, you remember that weird rash of creepy clowns that kept showing up last year, right?

Well, Pennsylvania State Police are warning folks that there may be a new rash of creepy clown sightings as the movie IT comes out next week.

“With the fall of 2017 upon us, it is anticipated that similar ‘creepy clown’ sightings could be reported starting as soon as September, in part due to the fact that the movie ‘t will be released in theaters on 9/8/2017,” the bulletin reads, according to CBS News.

Sightings were reported in 16 states last year, which included Pennsylvania. The bulletin also read that these sightings are not new, given that they were reported nationwide as early as the 1980s.

“The creepy clown craze in September 2016 resulted in at least a dozen people arrested in Georgia, Alabama, and Virginia for either taking part in the menacing stunt or for making false reports.”

Earlier this week, The Hollywood Reporter reported that the legitimate clown business has taken a hit due to the “scary clown” sightings. Moreover, the upcoming release of It, starring Bill Skarsgard as Pennywise, is impacting the clown industry negatively in the sense that they are losing work.

Wow. Just, like, wow.

In this week’s “Wait, what’s happening now?” story for those of you like me that love the Netflix show Sense8, you may be interested to know that a very unlikely company has thrown their hat in the ring to produce a revival of the show.

Netflix first said they were cancelling the show after this current second season. After MUCH uproar from devoted fans, Netflix caved-in and have confirmed they will produce a two-hour show finale for next year.

WELL, the porn site xHamster posted an open letter to series co-creators Lana and Lily Wachowski on Wednesday, offering to produce a third season of the show.

“We’re not talking about a parody, or something less than, but an actual revival of the series,” xHamster vice president Alex Hawkins wrote. “We know that a series about polymorphous perversity is a hard sell for a mainstream network like Netflix. We have no such limitations, and also understand implicitly the interconnectedness of sexualities across boundaries. In short, we are a we.”

Hawkins acknowledged that this may seem to be an “unconventional” fit, but that he would like to set up a meeting with the show’s producers. He touted the company’s “billions of users,” along with pointing out that xHamster continues “to use our audience to speak up against repressive anti-LGBTQ laws in the U.S. and abroad, and for sex ed in public schools, Planned Parenthood and the right of sex workers.”

“We know we’re an unlikely home, but five years ago people laughed at the idea of Netflix producing original series,” he continued. “We think that our time, like yours, has come.”

This follows Lana’s recent announcement that she is writing a third season of the show, even though no platform is currently planning to air it.

A representative for the Wachowskis did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Yeah, I’ll bet they’re still busy trying to process this information.

Wowzers. What a development. I think I’d love to see this happen. It would be ground-breaking, and that is one thing Sense8 surely is. I am intrigued.

Aaaaaannd, I’m out! See you kids next week!

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Author: Neil Weakley

Hi. I’m Neil. I didn’t go to film school so I don’t really have to justify any of my opinions about why I like a film or not. So there. But I worked in film for a number of years, so I have hands-on experience. That, and I’ve known Chris Mancini for, like, 25 years. It really is all who you know. :)

I’m mostly, but not exclusively, a fan of sci-fi, comic book movies, horror, comedies, and weird independent films. If you’re an average movie-goer and want to know what another average movie-goer thinks without all the “feelm school” gobbley-gook, hop on over to www.comedyfilmnerds.com and look for me, Neil T. Weakley. I won’t steer you wrong. Or follow me on Twitter @wychlea or @FilmNerdNeil.